


Slowly, Then All At Once (Diary Entries of a Young Papyrus)

by Quills_For_Wings



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: But no one dies, Gen, Kid!Papyrus, Promise, kinda sad, six-to-seven-year-old Papyrus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-10 15:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6962899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quills_For_Wings/pseuds/Quills_For_Wings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We all know that Sans is a fatalist, apathetic skeleton because he knows that any action he makes will just be cast into oblivion once the Timeline resets. Sounds pretty grim, but how did he slowly spiral into such a depressing state? Surely, he didn't find out about Timelines one day then become a lazy bone the very next.</p>
<p>A young Papyrus unwittingly records his brother's slow fall in the form of numerous diary entries that aren't necessarily one after the other. After all, lots of kids' diary entries don't make sense; only a few are exceptions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slowly, Then All At Once (Diary Entries of a Young Papyrus)

**Author's Note:**

> Hallo!  
> I'm one step away to becoming an Undertale fan, but I'm not yet crazy about it because I haven't played the game yet (just spoiled myself via wikia). 
> 
> This isn't the usual narrative fanfic. It's more of a set of drabbles woven (somewhat haphazardly, I might say) into one sad bunch. It's pretty hard trying to have the voice of a six-to-seven-year-old, so I had to base it on my own memories as one--I spoke pretty giddily with a lot of slang at the time, so I kinda incorporated it into Papyrus. 
> 
> I might make a sequel after this, in San's POV and in proper narrative form this time, but maybe if I know that a lot of people have read it.

Sans bought me a diary today. It’s awesome—orange and blue, like me and Sans.

Today isn’t that weird, but it’s special like ALL DAYS. Sans taught me lots of cool tricks, then later we’re gonna have spaghetti that he cooked. When I grow up, I’m gonna be the one cooking spaghetti. Then Sans won’t have to multitask like he has four arms or something. One of these days, the spaghetti might burn because he’s busy writing reports and stuff like that.

Speaking of the spaghetti…OH NO IT’S BURNING BYE DIARY.

**--*-*-*-*--**

Sans made me refresh on those blaster thingies he was teaching me a week ago. He said mine are cool, but they don’t cause that much damage yet. I dunno why he wants it to cause lots of damage—it looks pretty just the way it is, being bright and colorful and all that.

Sans beat me in our play duel today. Bummer, but Sans didn’t hit me too hard, and said I’m improving a bit. Then he slapped me on the shoulder blade and said I’m doing really swell.

We tried cooking a different kind of spaghetti—one with white sauce instead of red. It looks pretty plain, and Sans said we’ll just stick to regular spaghetti next time.

                                                                                    **-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*                                     

Sans and I visited the Slime family today. They’re a friendly bunch, and some of the little monsters there let me play ‘Monsters and Humans’ with them. Because I was the newbie, I was the human. Bummer—but it was still fun though.

After we played, we saw Sans talking with the Slime adults, and they’re talking about runs and stuff. Really athletic, eh?

There was this fish-girl from Waterfall who came here. Said her name was Undyne. She’s nice, but she’s also REAALLY LOUD. Anyway, she said she wants to be a royal guard when she grows up. She also had dinner with me and Sans, but she said San’s spaghetti could use more work. Whatever. She went home after that, and I kinda want her to come back because she seems awesome, but also not come back because I think San’s spaghetti is just fine.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

I’ve been thinking about it, and it looks like being in the Royal Guard looks cool. And since, I’m already cool, then being in the Royal Guard can make me EXTRA COOLER.

Undyne visited again—gee, wonder why—and she said I need to be tougher to be a royal guard. Excuse her. We still played Monsters and Humans though (why am I always the human).

When Sans heard of my plan, he just shrugged and said ‘yeah, sure buddy’. Then he drank a bottle of ketchup. I should tell him to stop, even though he doesn’t have kidneys to destroy (they’re for humans).

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Looks like Sans doesn’t have to multitask that much. The grocery store kicked him out when he was caught slacking. I think it’s bad because Sans never slacked before, but he said he still has the job at the library and we’re pretty fine and dandy.

It’s a normal day, but still a SPECIAL DAY. A while ago, Sans read me a bedtime story—Snow Wit and the Seven Bad Puns—and it was pretty go even though I’ve heard ten million times already. Goodnight, diary.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*--*-*--*

Sans went home later than usual, so I thought I should make spaghetti now. It was a total fail, though, and I thought Sans will be really angry but he wasn’t. He just dumped the sticky mess and made a new batch.

He seemed tired, but he said it’s because he worked overtime and it’s natural. Makes sense.

He said that he met someone named Alphys, who’s a science person, and they became friends. They were talkin about these things called Timelines. I wanna know what those are, but Sans said he’ll tell me when I’m older.

**---*-*-*-*-*-**----*

Sans went to work today, as usual, but he went home early—like, two hours early. We played more games and also practiced on our ~~gasker~~ ~~gasper~~ gaster blasters. Sans did fewer blasters than I did, but he said it’s because his are stronger so we’re even. Nyeh.

Spaghetti’s not that good—I dunno why, coz Sans cooked it like he always does. Anyway, he let me have more spaghetti than him, and I’m glad because all that blaster blasting makes me really tired.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*--*-*-*

Sans didn’t go to work today. I asked him why, and he said it was because workers need some rest too sometimes. We throw some blasters on the hill, and I throw a hundred thousand blasters. Sans threw ten, I guess.

We had sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and it’s really weird, but maybe Sans just wants to be less tired today. That’s a-okay.

Sans slept on the couch before he can get into his pajamas, and I had to wake him up before he did. He said sorry for being such a lazyskull, then read me TWO STORIES and sang me a lullaby. YAY.

************-----------*********

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sans let me wake up later than usual, which means I get more rest so I can be MORE AWESOME, and he let me have two times more spaghetti than usual AND cake for breakfast. I had to let him eat my leftovers later, though, because I couldn’t eat two spaghettis and cake in one sitting.

The Slime kids gave me slime sculptures of me—when I squish them, they kinda look like Sans though. Grillby let me drink half a shot of the firescotch that I really wanted to try but can’t because I’m underage. It REALLY burns, so maybe I really should’ve just waited till I was about Sans’ age. Sans drank three glasses of that stuff, which means he’s really strong stuff.

We had a snowball-and-blaster fight, and today Sans let me win! He seemed really really worn out though—maybe because we played right after he had firescotch—but when he healed himself he looked fine again.

Sans let me stay up later too, because I’m the birthday boy, but I sleep on time because I’m really tired too. I’m so sleepy that I was only able to see the gift he had for me—a mug with a bad pun on it—and listen to a story.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*********-----*

Sans doesn’t go to work again, because he wants to spend more time with me. Aaaaaaaaw.

We had another blaster fight, and I win again because he only let one of his blasters hit me. We watch TV after that.

I ask Sans if I could visit one of the Slime kids, and he lets me, but he doesn’t go with me because his knee kinda hurts. Weird—he was walking quite fine a while ago.

It’s an uneventful day, and Sans read me a bedtime story like usual, but then he fell asleep before he could finish it. I wake him up and he says sorry, then says goodnight and goes downstairs.

He still didn’t finish the book though. I should tell him tomorrow.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-***-*

Sans went overtime on work, got his job back at the grocery store, paid his tab at Grillby’s, AND read me four bedtime stories and sang me a song.

I know it’s really late and I should be sleeping, but I’m just SO HAPPY. I never noticed how energetic Sans used to be until he got back on his springs.

He’s sleeping on the couch in his day clothes again, though, but I hope he stays like this FOREVER. ^^

*-*-*-*--*-*-*-*-*-*

Sans quit his job at the library. He said being in a silent place for hours on end is really stressful, and I guess he deserved to quit because I don’t want him to be stressed.

I phone Undyne and she tells me how to make spaghetti secretly for Sans. The directions are really different, and I got the pasta softer than al dente, but SURPRISE SURPRISE my spaghetti’s better than San’s! He scolds me for using the stove on my own like that, but then he says thank you and sorry and eats. Then he says I should cook spaghetti next time.

It’s really awkward, but I asked Sans why he was always so tired. I thought he’d be angry because I was prying because adults get angry when I do, but he’s really calm and says that it’s because he’s getting older and it’s because having two jobs sucks sometimes.

I wonder how long he hasn’t worn his proper pajamas, because he always goes straight to the couch after reading me a story.

He must’ve been reeeeeally tired. I think he’s sick, and if I’m right (and I’M ALWAYS RIGHT), I hope he gets well. I wanna show him my gaster blasters next week.

*-*-*-*-**-*-*--*--*

I thought I woke up earlier than usual, but I looked at the clock. I woke up just in time. Phew.

Sans isn’t up yet, though—why? He’s usually awake before me. I had to wake him up myself, and he said sorry and thank you all at once.

I told him that I wanted to show my gaster blasters today, but he said that he’ll see it some other time, because he’s running late and he might have to do overtime and that I shouldn’t wait for him. Sad.

I play alone in the snow then take a long, long nap before he goes to work. I woke up later than I wanted to, and Sans didn’t leave at all. Apparently the grocery let him have a day off. Wow.

He seems really shaky and all, maybe it’s because he’s sick and he wouldn’t tell me, so I cook spaghetti and make him eat more than me.

His socks are on the floor, though. I should tell him to put them in the wash basket next time.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

_After that last entry, Papyrus was never able to write another diary entry longer than “Today was an awesome day” or “Sans overslept again”. For the following years, the young skeleton no longer busied himself with writing in his diary. Waking up Sans and slowly replacing the older skeleton as the more active brother took a great deal of the skeleton’s time._

_The diary soon got buried with other papers, usually printed out research on the Royal Guard, which Papyrus was psyched to be a part of. He almost forgot he had a diary._

**_Almost_ ** _._

_Some more years passed and the little orange-and-blue book collected so much dust that the orange sheen could no longer be seen. The little journal would find itself in its owner’s hands on one pretty eventful day: It was the day Captain Undyne let Papyrus train to be a Royal Guard, and Papyrus was searching in his old belongings for a certain research paper on Royal Guard training._

_Then his eyeless sockets saw a dull, dust-smothered orange and blue, and he took it even though that wasn’t what he was looking for._

_“Look what we have here!” he said gleefully. “A diary!” In his mind, the diary probably had childish stuff about him and Sans that he could make tons of jokes about. He had forgotten so much._

_Papyrus blew the dust off all the edges of the journal, and flipped through it. He was always the faster reader, although he never told Sans._

_Soon, he found himself chewing on virtually nothing, and there was something in his empty chest cavity that was weighing him down. His deft finger bones flipped through one of the last, brief entries, and he hesitated before sifting to the very last entry, which was on the very last page._

_It was short, very short, and Papyrus wondered if his past self knew that it would be just as meaningful as the older, longer ones._

_**-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-**_

I just want Sans back. He’s not sick, but he’s dying. I dunno how that works, but it just _does_. 

 

 

 


End file.
